


A to Z - Cloris

by mercibun



Series: Cloris [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Angst? Angst., Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, I'll add the specific tags when i get to it okay i'm lazy and on mobile, Memories, Next up on "wren has no idea how to tag", Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The MCD warning is because of That Chapter in KOTFE, crisis on umbara spoilers, multiple one shots, spoilers for literally everything
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-02 14:46:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12728628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercibun/pseuds/mercibun
Summary: “A writing meme spaced out over 26 days. Each day write a little ficlet about your character of choice and their reaction to certain stimuli, denoted by a letter of the alphabet.”Fandom: SWTORChosen character: Cloris MacabreDate started: 15th November 2017Contains spoilers beginning from the trooper storyline all the way up to Crisis on Umbara. This story is not in chronological order.





	1. Preface

This will be updated alongside each chapter!

A is for Absence  
B is for Betrayal  
C is for _  
D is for _  
E is for _  
F is for _  
G is for _  
H is for _  
I is for _  
J is for _  
K is for _  
L is for _  
M is for _  
N is for _  
O is for _  
P is for _  
Q is for _  
R is for _  
S is for _  
T is for _  
U is for _  
V is for _  
W is for _  
X is for _  
Y is for _  
Z is for _


	2. A is for Absence

_Five years._

Cloris Macabre was dead, and had been for five years.

That was what Lana had told her, anyway; and that was the common belief of the galaxy after Cloris’ disappearance at the hands of Zakuul.

The dead woman, former CO of the Republic's best, stared at the ceiling of the Gravestone with deep green eyes, unblinking. She tried to force sleep upon herself that wouldn't come, using every trick she had employed as a soldier to take a nap in the field. But even after a long shower and administering a sleep stim, her mind wouldn't quiet. The tattoos etched upon her face itched slightly, and she felt vulnerable. There were five years of tattoos she had missed out on, five years of achievements that she was tasked to record on Life Day each year as a Zabrak woman.

She missed the way her life had been; easy, compared to this. She had her Squad; and her enemy was one she had been fighting for years, ever since she'd graduated with top honours from the Academy. Sith were evil, Jedi were not. Most Imperial Commanders were assholes, only some Republic officers were. Black and white, good and evil. Life had been simple.

_Five years._

Cloris thought of Havoc.

She thought of the awful drills that Aric insisted upon when they had downtime on Voss. It was smart, and a good move, but her darling XO was a very, very brutal instructor sometimes. Cloris thought of Elara, who had a knack for managing to do the most efficient work in the entire unit. To the time Cloris vanished, nobody had any idea how she managed it. She thought of Forex, spouting motivation in the form of propaganda, something like “Keep this up and the Imperial scum will be vanquished!” and wondered how he would feel that his former CO was working with the former Head of Sith Intelligence. Cloris recalled fondly (to her surprise) Vik making awful jokes on every possible thing during the aforementioned drills; it lightened things up, and had even pulled laughs out of their otherwise somewhat serious group. She thought of Yuun, the sixth and quietest member of Havoc, who had always done his drills without tangible complaint. He had a unique way of seeing how things should be done, but his answers were seldom wrong.

Cloris wondered where they were now. She wondered who Aric would have chosen as his XO upon assuming command of Cloris’ former squad. She wondered who would have been nominated as her replacement. She wondered whether any of her old unit was still attached to the outfit, or if all five of her former colleagues had gone separate ways.

In general, Cloris was curious as to what was happening to the Republic. Lana had told her their forces had been held under Zakuul’s iron fist since about a year into her absence, which was bad. On the bright side, apparently Saresh was out of office, which would have made things more bearable for those at higher clearances. The removal of a familiar face in power, she acknowledged to herself, would have caused mass tension among the people of the Republic.

_Five years._

Cloris rolled onto her side.

What about Malva? Her adoptive mother had literally lost a child. A pang settled in her stomach; the instant she got the chance, Cloris would send her a message. Just one to let the infamous smuggler know she was alive.

Being absent was a funny thing. Cloris had missed a lot, but she would never know exactly what she missed because she _had_ missed it. That made sense to her exhausted mind.

It had been two days since she slept, though admittedly the last time she had been asleep she had been frozen in carbonite and slowly dying. Cloris had decided upon her rescue that she had been asleep for long enough. The only reason she was in a cot now was to stop Lana fussing passively. A lot had changed since the days of Revan’s threat and their limited cooperation, and while Cloris was still wary of completely trusting Lana there was obvious sincerity in the fact that she wanted to help.

_Over the next year,_ Cloris decided in that moment, _I will find out the locations of my squad mates._

She would take it one step at a time. But the next time a tyrant's empire went to take over the galaxy, she would make sure that she would be there for it. Cloris quelled her fear and replaced it with determination as her eyelids began to droop. She would not be absent.

_She would not be absent._


	3. B is for Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey uh if you haven't played through Crisis on Umbara and don't want spoilers, avoid this chapter yeah?

Cloris felt sick to her stomach on the shuttle ride back to Odessen from Umbara. Not even the familiar humming of _Thunderclap_ , which had come to pick her and Lana up from the shadow planet, had distracted Cloris from pacing back and forth in front of the holocom. Lana had vanished to start making calls and contingency plans that were about to come in use. She could feel that her face was creased in thought, eyes narrowed in concentration, and her breathing was tightly controlled so that she wouldn't start hyperventilating. It was wrong. This had to be some kind of sick joke. Six months ago, she would have thought so.

Of all people, the traitor had been Theron. 

He'd been an invaluable ally since the start of the Alliance, and before that, a friend. They'd been through a lot together: he'd been her link back to base when she repelled the invaders on Tython, had made the genius stroke of reaching out to Lana on Manaan when the Revanites became a threat, he'd been there with Cloris when the Coalition fought his ancestor, and had been one of her favourite parts of running this whole power.

That presented an issue of its own.

Cloris knew that one day if they met again, and he refused to come home, she would kill Theron. She had to, he was a liability: one of her most trusted advisors had gone rogue. He knew Alliance weaknesses and secrets that no rogue agent should ever have known. The Commander realised, distantly, that she had seen this situation before. Cloris laughed bitterly and sat down, leaning her back against the holocom.

“What's so funny?” Lana’s voice echoed slightly as she ascended the lower flight of stairs. The edges of Lana’s eyes were red and there was colour in her cheeks, she noticed as her friend and remaining advisor sat down next to her. Cloris decided to respect her privacy and not ask, though she knew the reason why. Instead, she answered the question.

“I've been in this sort of situation before.” She took a breath, remembering the details. “Not from this point of view, but I've experienced it. Arcann’s in my shoes this time.” 

Lana looked mildly confused, brow furrowed ever so slightly as she made to understand Cloris’ vagueness, so the Zabrak shook her head to clear her thoughts. 

“When I was first elected to Havoc Squad,” Cloris started again, “my entire outfit defected. The Republic did them wrong in a mission where it was their lives or an entire town’s. I was the only one left, so a month into my first ever field job I was promoted to Lieutenant and CO. Had to pick up the pieces on Ord Mantell, with the man who later became my husband as the first member.” Cloris smiled wryly.

“What happened to the traitors?”

“Tried to talk sense into them. They all died when I confronted them, be it by my hand or someone else’s. One sacrificed himself to save lives out on Tattooine.” She shook her head, a pang plucking at her gut as she remembered Fuse. She simultaneously was glad and regretful that he had been heroic; as a greenie he’d been her favourite Havoc member. “My track record for reverting traitors isn't that great.”

Right on cue, _Thunderclap_ jumped out of hyperspace. Cloris stood with a small groan as the ship landed, tired muscles complaining from their ordeal back on Umbara, and reached out a hand to help Lana up.

There was silence for a few minutes as the duo relocated from the military hangar to the staging room; it looked like news hadn't spread far yet. The Commander gave it half an hour at best, noting Aric’s questioning look as they hurried through the war room. The elevator ride was silent. They’d need to call a meeting very soon and let their high officials and Elara know, which meant the Republic would be made aware quickly. 

“I still can't believe it.” Lana spoke first, staring at the screen. She sounded hollow, and her hands tapped away on the console slower than usual.

“If it was anyone it would have had to be him. Not many people had his clearance, let alone his training.” Cloris felt dulled, matching her companion’s tone of voice as she paced behind Lana, trying to force her muddled thoughts into something productive. She shoved away the sinking feeling in her gut; she should have _known_ , Theron had been acting weird ever since Valkorion was dispelled. “So,” she said aloud, not voicing her internal monologue, “we have two options.”

“He either returns or he dies.” Lana said bluntly.

Cloris nodded agreement, thinking. She was always quick-witted, but as the numbness of her mind began to grieve for the loss of her friend Cloris made sure that she considered her options carefully. After a moment, she set her chin and nodded to Lana, who had finished tapping and now faced the soldier.

“Open up a channel on all Alliance-authorised devices. I want to send him a message.”


End file.
